Amsterdam has signed a new deal with the city of Rome which will see 900 tons of rubbish from the Italian city transported to the Netherlands by train every week in order to be burned at an incineration plant in the Dutch capital. 

Amsterdam stepping in to help Rome out during rubbish crisis

Apparently, the city of Rome has been struggling recently, drowning under piles of household waste that the Italian capital simply doesn’t have the capacity to process and dispose of. To make matters worse, the incinerator commissioned by Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri won’t be operational until at least 2026. 

Luckily, the city has come up with what sounds perhaps like a rather unusual solution. After much negotiation, Rome and the municipality of Amsterdam have agreed that, from April, the Italian capital will send 900 tons of rubbish to Amsterdam every week by train. Luckily, the 16-carriage trash train's tracks run directly to the Waste Energy Company (AEB) where it will be burned.

The municipality is making a pretty penny out of this deal: according to the AD, Rome is paying Amsterdam 200 euros for every ton of household waste, meaning the city is set to rake in around 180.000 euros a week just for disposing of Rome’s rubbish.

AEB burns Dutch and international waste to generate energy 

It might sound odd, but burning other countries’ waste is actually something the AEB has been doing for a while. Located in Amsterdam’s Westelijk Havengebied, the AEB points out that “like most waste incinerators in the Netherlands, AEB has been processing waste from abroad for many years.” 

In a statement for the press, AEB explains that waste is processed “in efficient incinerators” and is used to generate energy for households and companies in the Netherlands. “This is better for the environment than being dumped in Rome, even if the train transport of the waste is taken into account,” the AEB says.

Thumb: Henk Vrieselaar via Shutterstock.com.